Israeli occupation speeds up the implementation of annexation plans with full American support: report

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, (ST)- The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements has affirmed that the Israeli occupation authorities are accelerating the implementation of their plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank with the full support of the American administration with the aim of implementing the items of the so-called “Deal of the Century” that violates international legitimacy resolutions related to the Palestinian cause.

WAFA News Agency cited the Bureau’s weekly report as saying on Saturday that next Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit a number of Israeli settlements built on Palestinian lands in the West Bank. The report indicated that Pompeo announced last year that the US administration does not consider that the Israeli settlements violate international law, ignoring all international resolutions, especially the Security Council Resolution No. 2334 of 2016 which calls for the occupation to immediately stop all settlement operations on the occupied Palestinian territories.

 According to the report, the occupation authorities announced a plan to establish 108 settlement units to expand a settlement already built on Palestinian lands in the Shu’fat camp, to north of occupied al-Quds. They razed areas of Palestinian lands in Wadi al-Rababa neighborhood in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and other lands in the village of Zanuta, south of al-Khalil city, to open a settlement road linking two settlement outposts established on the lands of the village. The occupation authorities also razed 58 dunums of lands in Qarawet Bani Hassan and Haris towns, to west of Salfit, in order to expand one of the already built settlements. They also closed an agricultural road linking the villages of Shaqba and Rantis in Ramallah and prevented Palestinians from passing through it.

In the same context, the report made it clear that the Israeli occupation forces demolished a house in al-Tour neighborhood, a commercial facility in the town of Anata in occupied al-Quds, an agricultural facility in al-Jalda area in the city of al-Khalil, two houses and an agricultural facility in the village of Juret Al-Sham’a, south of Bethlehem and a house in the village of al-Walaja, north of Bethlehem. The occupation forces delivered notices for demolishing houses and facilities in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied al-Quds and in al-Samu’ and Tawani towns in al-Khalil.

The Israeli extremist settlers, the report went on to say, continue their attacks on the cities and towns of the West Bank under the protection of the occupation forces. They seized swathes of Palestinian lands in Ras al-Tin area in the village of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah, and in Umm Kharrouba area in the northern Jordan Valley to establish settlement outposts. They also stormed the village of Turmus’ya, northeast of Ramallah and vandalized Palestinian agricultural lands and raided the towns of Silet al-Dhaher and al-Jalameh in Jenin where they attacked the houses and properties of the Palestinians.

Hamda Mustafa